


Meet The Children.

by BunnyJess



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Catwoman (Comics), DCU
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Angst with a Happy Ending, Birth complications, Catherine Todd - Freeform, F/F, F/M, Fatal car accident, Fluff, Gen, Happy families, Holly Robinson - Freeform, IVF, JaySteph Birthday Exchange, Labour Complications, Mentions of Greek Mythology, NO CAPES, Placental Abruption, Pregnancy, STAY Server Exchange, Single Parents, Toddlers, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, both off screen, first time meetings, maternal death, mentions of;
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:47:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25939918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BunnyJess/pseuds/BunnyJess
Summary: Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle have been dating a few months. Before they take it any further they need to ensure two very special people in their life get on. Mess, laughter, sleeping, and happiness are on the cards for people who've had a rough few years.
Relationships: Catherine Todd/Bruce Wayne, Holly Robinson/Crystal Brown, Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne
Comments: 5
Kudos: 31





	Meet The Children.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dnky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dnky/gifts), [dxs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dxs/gifts).



> Based on the prompt from dnky on the StephJay discord; Baby Jay meeting baby Steph. Hope you like it darling <3

Three years ago, and ten months after a brief fling with another socialite, Bruce received a phone call from Thomas Wayne Memorial Hospital that changed his life in an instant. Catherine was in labour and asking for the father of the child, apparently it was him as she’d not been with anyone else around the time of conception. Luck wasn’t on his side that day, just as it hadn’t been when he’d been in that alley all those years ago, and Bruce arrived just as the doctors walked out of theatre. Catherine had needed an emergency c-section in an attempt to get the baby out and stop the placental abruption* that had occurred. It had been caught too late, the abruption too severe and they had only just managed to save the baby.

Bruce had stood over his son’s incubator, ignoring how his mind kept throwing up _HOLY SHIT YOU HAVE A CHILD_ , and swore that he would go to the ends of the universe if it meant ensuring his boy’s safety and happiness. It had been difficult to think of a name, so many options springing to mind. He could go with Thomas, to honour his late father, and have Alfie as a middle name to honour the man who’d raised him as his own. Names from favourite books popped up. Some more Jewish than others to honour his mother’s side of the family. He’d been stuck for hours, names filling the little notebook he carried everywhere as he sat at the boy’s side.

Then Catherine’s parents had arrived. Both clearly having been crying, they still managed to approach the pair with a smile. They explained how they’d thought it over in the time since their daughter had passed and decided that, although children deserved a chance to know both their parents, they didn’t think they could be around him without feeling a small measure of hatred towards him. After all, to them, the pregnancy and subsequent birth had taken Catherine away.

Just before they left they’d given Bruce the necklace Catherine had been wearing just before labour really kicked in. It was a stunning piece of metalwork. A lion with a spearhead in its mouth in 24carat gold and two small yellow diamonds for the lions eyes.

“Our Cathy was obsessed with Ancient Greece as a kid. That was a gift from her grandmother for her tenth birthday to symbolise Leonidas. We’d like for her son to have it, we know it’s what she’d want.” Her father had said as his wife walked out of the NICU.

It got Bruce thinking, that necklace kept around his own neck every hour he sat beside his son. His son who was already a strong little fighter.

The name didn’t truly come to him until Alfred had arrived to help them take him home. Tucking a fleece blanket around him in the car seat and lightly running a hand over his head. The story of the Argonauts coming back to him.

His little Jason.

Two years later, and further into the city, Selina Kyle had spent her Saturday morning as she always did. She went for a jog, got a coffee, and started getting ready for lunch with the girls. Then her phone had rung. It was an old one, one she hadn’t used in years but kept charged as it was the only number her sister could contact her on. Selina had had to walk away, hadn’t been able to witness her sister being raised on a pedestal while she was treated like shit, beaten and verbally abused near daily. Finally clawing her way out from under her parents and starting afresh thanks to college.

Holly had been involved in a horrendous accident. Killing her and her wife, Crystal, and leaving behind their two-year-old daughter. As Selina was Stephanie’s only living relative, Crystal using her eggs in IVF, and had been down as Holly’s emergency contact, after her wife, she was being asked to take in a niece she hadn’t even known existed.

Stephanie is a whirlwind of casts, stickers, juice, and Disney songs. In a matter of a few short weeks Selina’s artfully modern and minimalist penthouse apartment at the edge of the financial district turns into a place where purple, glitter, and cape wearing hot wheels reign supreme.

There are days where Stephanie is almost silent, her mind clearly fogged with the memories of losing her parents. The cast on her arm and the brace on her leg itch and Selina spends the day holding her close and distracting her by watching Frozen 2 for the fifth time in a single day.

Then there are days where Selina can’t imagine her life without her kitten. A two-year-olds laughter after so much tragedy is like a tonic. She talks constantly, tripping over letters and mixing up sentence orders. She’ll eat waffles for breakfast and want them for dinner. More than once Selina finds herself pulling out her diary at the museum where she works and finding a new sticker attached to it, or a page covered in colourful scribbles.

Both Bruce and Selina’s lives change again. They meet by chance at an opening for the newest museum exhibit. Bruce idly looking through the collection of Grace Kelly dresses and wondering if Jason would want a mini one made, his son currently enjoying wearing any clothing he wants and Bruce supports that even when the parents at the daycare and park give him judgmental looks. At two and a half he has very set ideas about what is right on him and what is wrong. Leslie has reassured Bruce is probably a texture thing and not him inheriting any poor fashion sense from his father. Catherine always had managed to look beautiful, Bruce thinks it’s be good if Jason took after her rather than him.

Her manager points Bruce Wayne out and she’s ordered to schmooze him as best she can. Later, when they’re trying to work out how to breathe again in the crumpled hotel bed, Selina will laugh as she knows for a fact that’s not what her boss meant.

After four months of dating, all done in secret so no media outlet would force them into the open. They didn’t want to rush anything. It was imperative with the other aspects of their lives that they were certain of exploring a future together before any outside pressure was put on them. One person in each of their lives taking priority over each other and their own happiness.

By the time the doorbell rings at ten on a Saturday morning Bruce is a bundle of nerves. He’s spent the past hour playing with Jason after spending twice as long to convince his son that clothes were required to meet people. Jason’s preference for clothing now firmly in no clothing is the best clothing.

He scoops his son onto his hip and walks to the door. Alfred has the morning off so their date doesn’t feel even more chaperoned than it already will with two almost three-year-olds. As with every other times he’s met Selina she takes his breath away a little. She might not be wearing her usual date attire but there is something inherently sexy about a woman wearing their most comfy jeans and a well-worn tee. Her short pixie cut as messily styled as always, one of their earliest conversations on their second date had been her lamenting the fact sticky toddler hands and long hair didn’t mix too well. Especially when trying to rush out the door in the morning.

Almost in a mirror to Bruce, Selina has little Stephanie on her hip. The girl is looking at him oddly while sucking on a stuffed cat, one Selina had gotten her after finding out her most loved bear had been destroyed in the wreck. Her blonde hair reflecting the August sun and making her look angelic.

“You not a girl.” Steph says. Confusion scrunching up her face as she looks Bruce over.

He smiles slightly, thankful that Selina had told him about Holly and Crystal. “Ah no I’m not. I hope that won’t upset you. I was really excited to meet you Knight Stephanie.” He tips his head in a bow and gets a giggle.

Stephanie is currently in a phase where she will only respond if called a knight first, determined to save all the princes and princesses. Selina shares a soft look with Bruce, a silent thanks for buttering the young girl up. “You must be Jason, lovely to meet you.” She leans in as if to confide in the young boy and stage whispers to him, “even if you are wearing clothes when I was told you didn’t like them.”

Bruce pretends to look betrayed as Jason shoots him his most fearsome scowl, one he only reserves for clothes and sleep. “Daddy made me.” The sheer level of hatred he manages to portray so close to his third birthday something truly amazing.

“Oh well, we’ll just have to keep all the cookies away from him won’t we.” Selina winks as Jason and gets a giggle as reply.

They move into the family room that really has become just that now there is a toddler filling the house with mess. Books and toys clutter the antique furniture and the tv never seems to be off of a kids show. It’s only one of the few rooms in the house Bruce is 100% sure his parents would love had they been alive to meet their grandchild.

With the kids set down near the playmobil Bruce finally gets to give Selina a chaste kiss. Leaving her with the kids while he gets them all drinks. He knows if he doesn’t Alfred will have that disappointed look even without Bruce telling him the guests went thirsty.

The time passes by in a blur. The kids getting along swimmingly, playing happily beside each other and together. Jason happy with letting Stephanie be the knight as he gets to be the princess. Their talk getting more excited and less understandable to the adults the more they get into it.

The play only breaks for lunch. Both kids seeming to instinctively know when their parents are getting into a deep discussion and start complaining they’re hungry. Food taking priority and neither want to have a grumpy child when it’s going so well.

As Bruce sees the pair off with Jason fighting sleep on his shoulder some hours later, Stephanie in a similar state in her car seat, and Selina turning back to blow him a kiss and give a small wave he has a feeling the kids meeting and meeting their partners went about as well as can be expected. There is a juice stain in the rug, the pasta lunch was ignored as both wanted Alfred’s cookies first, and the last hour had been spent with both kids in their laps while they talked and the tv played a film. However, no one started screaming. There were no fights, and both shared the toys. Stephanie had even given up the knight at one point and Jason had shown her his favourite book, a book he’d even refused to share with Alfred as it was only for him and Bruce to read.

When Selina’s phone buzzes with a picture of Jason asleep holding the knight she knows her and Bruce have a chance. A really chance at happiness. Their kids just proved it after all.

*the placenta separates from the wall of the uterus and leads to blood loss that can cause loss of both mother and child if not caught/treated quickly. This is due to the large blood vessel network connecting mother to child to aid growth.


End file.
